Instead of normalizing time reference of independent spatially-located
clocks using a reference tag transmission from known location, the
present invention uses an interarrival time interval between a pulse pair
of UWB pulses as a timing metric. Thus, a method of synchronizing
spatially-located clock or normalizing time indications thereof comprises
transmitting a UWB pulse pair, determining at first and second monitoring
stations a respective count value indicative of a locally measured time
interval between received pulse pairs, determining a ratio between clock
counts of first and second monitoring stations, and utilizing the ratio
to determine clock skew, e.g., a timing correction to be applied to
respective local clocks of the monitoring stations. A corresponding
system comprises a reference tag transmitter that transmits a pulse pair
of UWB pulses to define a time reference interval, a first independent
receiver that receives the pulse pair to generate a first count value
indicative an interarrival interval between the pulse pair, a second
independent receiver that receives the pulse pair to similarly generate a
second count value, and a processor hub responsive to the count values to
determine a ratio corresponding to the ratio of respective clock
frequencies of the first and second receiver clocks. Once the correction
is applied, time-of-arrival information from object tag transmissions may
be used to determine object location with sub-foot position accuracies.